Social media marketer consultant & trainer working across B2B & B2C sectors including #restuarants #food #hotels #socialmedia #UK Bizwizuk born in #Manchester
One of the hardest parts of managing any kind of social media marketing campaign is coming up with new ideas. If you’re expected to juggle numerous social media platforms and keep them up-to-date with fresh posts then I’ve put together some fresh ideas especially for you – enjoy!
1.Run a competition or giveaway
Everyone
loves a freebie, and they’re a great way to encourage engagement.
However, it’s not as straightforward as you may think;
Is your
giveaway going to be related to your brand? Consider free products, free
membership, free guides, free videos, free advice. It’s not necessary to
relate the giveaway directly to your brand but it can be useful to do so,
especially if you do have branded freebies to give away.
Does your competition have terms and conditions, point of contact, contact details, etc? You must include terms and conditions if anything goes amiss, plus it shows your competition in a legitimate light.
2.Create bite-size video
Video is necessary for brands but sadly many don’t see the investment worthwhile. However, video gets loads more engagement than text alone and especially useful on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. There are some great ideas from the @KrispyKreme feed here.
3.Re-purpose your content
For every piece of content created, either written or video think about ways to promote it beyond its original format. For example, pull a client testimonial or quote and re-purpose it into an image via Canva (my team really like this platform). Likewise, re-purpose your video content into bite-size previews of your longer video from your YouTube channel.
4.Tutorials and how-to’s
Free advice, and step-by-step guides and tutorials are a great way to educate your followers. This can works especially well in the food and drink sectors for cocktail making and food recipes – think Jamie Oliver for one. Consider short, to the point videos while still giving loads of free information.
5.Go live
There’s nothing more compelling than live video to capture your audience’s attention. All social media platforms offer the opportunity to stream live. Whether you’re vlogging from your kitchen table or conducting a Q & A session, responding to your followers in real-time establishes a more personal connection. Don’t forget you can re-purpose and use again across your platforms.
Alternatively, you could show your clients how much you appreciate them by giving them a shout-out. This goes beyond tweeting those who support your business with something much more powerful and special.
7.Take advantage of trending news
The best ideas come along when you least expect them to. Trending news on Twitter and Facebook signify a way for your brand to capitalise on a window of opportunity for such content to be relevant. Use Google Alerts for hot-off-the-press news and various industry-appropriate news channels as soon as it goes live.
8.Run a social-media exclusive deal
Adding a promotional code to any offer will help you to get the insights you need to know how many are buying from you and how much they are engaging.
9.Respond to your followers
Brand should always be willing to talk to their followers. Time is precious and taking the time to respond, shows that you care. Whether you’re praising, addressing a concern or question, or just saying hello, your response can represent your brand in a whole new light. Think about combining customer service with a humorous twist, telling them how much you value your followers’ feedback.
10.Go behind the scenes
Show the
people behind the brand because the core of any brand is their people.
“People buy people before they buy your services.” Offer a
“behind the scenes” snapshot of your people in the office, over a team lunch or
team get-together. It’s important to humanise a brand!
BizWizUK
can take your business to the next level by supporting your social media
marketing plans. If you don’t have the in-house resource or expertise, we
provide an outsourced tailored solution. Get in touch with me at
info@bizwizuk.co.uk or call on 0161 826 7181 or via our contact page.
Getting your startup business on social media has never been as important and with 3.48 billion people now use social media, that’s an increase of 9% from last year1. This means an astonishing 45% of the total world population are using social networks, and that is growing every day.
Your Startup on Social Media
Check out my 5-step process to help your startup get started.
Set S.M.A.R.T Goals – Make sure your goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. For example, you may want 50 new followers in 30 days. Use analytics platforms to track your online activity in real-time, we use and recommend Cyfe.
Competitors – Look at your competitors by conducting a competitive analysis that will help you to understand who your competitors are and spot any opportunities, strengths and take advantage of their weaknesses. This is also a great way to draw on inspiration from other businesses that are great on social media, taking note on the different types of content they publish and how they engage with their audience.
Set up Accounts – Determine which platforms you are going to use, looking at those where your target audience lie. Set up and optimise your accounts, completing all profile fields using your industry specific keywords and any hashtags, use branded images that correctly reflect your new start-up and are correctly sized for each individual platform.
Start a Social Media Calendar – Start creating a content schedule that lists the date, time and different types of content for each channel. Use a social media management platform, which will help you to makes finding, scheduling, managing, and reporting on social media content much easier, we use and recommend Hootsuite.
Test, Measure and Test Again – Tracking your activity and data using one of the monitoring tools above will help you to see what works and what doesn’t. Evaluate and test again until you see what works and what doesn’t.
Summary
Help to improve your startup’s brand loyalty, engage with your audience, and build stronger client relationships by getting on social media. This will set you apart from your competitors by showing your audience how your company is different and reinforcing that your business is the experts in their field.
Should you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch, whether that’s for a bespoke LinkedIn workshop for you or your team, a face to face or a remote-based one to one workshop or ongoing, outsourced social media marketing support.
Your LinkedIn profile needs to stand out because there are over 500 million users worldwide, and with this kind of reach there are potential customers searching every day, looking to connect with people who have your skills, products or services. The secret to being successful on LinkedIn is making your profile visible and having it show up consistently when users are searching for people with your skill set. Furthermore, if there are many users in the same business as you, your profile needs to rank higher than the others, for you to catch the eyes of potential customers.
I offer a whole host of complimentary downloads that you can get here. Alternatively, here’s some tips that you can use in order to achieve the success you long deserve:
Don’t be faceless…upload a professional-looking photo
Take the best photo you can but it should be appropriate to you and your industry and don’t take selfie! Since LinkedIn is a professional business platform it is better to have an appropriate head and shoulder shot. If you are camera shy or don’t feel confident, you can always outsource the task to a professional, we recommend Chris Foster.
Professional Headline – by default it is always your current job role…
However, I advise you change it. Stand out my being sparky, use words that prompt a response when someone is looking for your area of expertise. Provide more detail than what is on your business card. For example; “consultant specialising in town planning” is much clearer and concise than just “consultant”. Describing what you do in a clear way will help people to source you as a potential supplier. Consequently, people you want to connect with will find you more easily if they are drawn to your Headline! In my training, I often refer to your professional headline as your elevator pitch. Try making a change and ask your colleagues for feedback!
Customise your Public Profile URL
LinkedIn profiles have URLs that look like a whole load of numbers and characters. Stand out by adding your name on the URL (linkedin.com/name) or if your name has been taken, also add your company name. Remember, I’m looking for you to stand out.
To get a custom URL, go to your ‘Edit Profile’ screen:
Customise your Public Profile URL – stand out!
Utilize LinkedIn SEO
Identify certain keywords and industry terms that you would want your profile to be associated with, and add these to your:
Job title
Specialties
Career experience
Personal interests
Key achievements
This will help when someone searches any of the words that you want to be associated with (i.e. your keywords above), and your profile will possibly appear in their search results.
In Summary
Time to spring clean your LinkedIn profile? Remember:
Don’t be faceless – upload a
professional-looking photo
Use relevant keywords in your profile summary
and headline
Utilize LinkedIn’s SEO capability
Connect with the right people to grow your
network and engage with them
Show authority within your industry with published content
Should you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch, whether that’s
for a bespoke LinkedIn workshop for your team, a face to face or a remote-based
one to one workshop or ongoing, outsourced social media marketing support, we’ll
help ensure that your brand stays on top in 2019.
What
is a social media competitor analysis and why is it important for your
business?
It’s important to know what other companies
in your sector are doing on social media, and the aim of a social media competitor
analysis is to learn from your competitors and identify any strategic opportunities.
Is a social media competitor
analysis essential?
It should be a vital part of
your company’s marketing plan. By undertaking a competitor analysis, you can
benchmark your business, learn from your competitors’ strengths and take
advantage of their weaknesses, establish the level of service that your target
audience expects, what they engage with the most and determine a niche to set
your company apart.
Investors and key stakeholders will be particularly interested in a competitor analysis; they want to know that you are both realistic about your positioning in the market and thinking strategically about what direction you need to be heading in to future proof your business. Here is a useful article from Entrepreneur which also gives you an overview and contact us for details of how we can help.
How do you do it?
Firstly, you need to know who
your competitors are; a minimum of three competitors should be identified at
local level and at least one at national level.
You should then determine where
each holds an online presence across the various social media platforms. On
each platform, you should note:
Are there core channels that each competitor is active on?
How are your competitors using these core channels to meet their goals of sales, brand engagement and customer service?
What is the frequency of updates? Are they taking a consistent approach, or is it an ad-hoc?
What content is being used and how? Do they use a mix of media content?
What people/companies respond to the most/best?
Are they creating tailored content for each channel?
Summary
Once you gather this
information for each competitor you will be able to identify who are the
leaders in each area, what they are doing best, what your target audience
responds to the most, what everyone does well and what nobody does well. Once you have this information, it will allow
you to benchmark your social media marketing plan, by creating an easy to
understand competitor matrix, rating each area on the above set of criteria.
To compete in the world of
business you must know your competitors! For more information on the
services BizWizUK offers please click
here, call us on 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.
Someone recently said to me “I’m deleting my LinkedIn account”, when I asked why they said, “because I think it’s a waste of time”. This is what people generally say who aren’t active on LinkedIn. If you haven’t updated your personal profile in a very long time and don’t want to leverage LinkedIn to help grow your business then yes, delete your account – go straight to your settings and click “close account”.
So, lets’ turn this question on its head. Think, “what’s in it for me – how can I use
LinkedIn in a proactive way?”
Here’s my top tips for starters:
Upload a professional-looking profile picture
Add a background image (normally in relation to your company’s
brand)
Make your professional headline more than just a job title –
think of your 30-second elevator pitch!
Turn your summary into your story – who, why, where, when and
goals for the future
Grow your network – connect with people you know and those you
meet out networking
List all your skills
Here’s my top tips that you may not know:
Edit your public profile URL – if it’s currently your name and a
long set of numbers then you can change this which also makes it easier for
people to find you. I use my URL on my
business cards, email footers and any other marketing material.
Showcase your expertise by attaching copies of any certificates
to your profile, we should shout about our expertise, it might be the difference
between winning that new contract or winning your new job!
Ask for recommendations (testimonials) from people you have
worked with, such as clients, contractors and members of your team – ask others
to tell the world how good you are at your job!
Writing articles to Publisher is a great way to improve your
thought leadership position, establishing yourself as the expert in your field,
which and will increase your credibility and visibility. As with any content marketing plan, consistently
write a new article, say, one per month (to start with). However, if something in your industry suddenly
became a hot topic of conversation, writing an article will help you position
yourself in that topic.
Use LinkedIn to generate leads through LinkedIn Lead Generation forms. Companies looking to advertise on LinkedIn can
collect quality leads using forms
that are pre-filled with LinkedIn profile data
and when a member clicks on the call-to-action button on a LinkedIn ad with an attached Lead Gen Form, the
form is automatically filled with their contact and profile information. For more information click here
Use LinkedIn Search to search as part of your lead generation strategy. Look for those who are in your target audience. For example, if I wanted to run a search for an
ideal client, the search would look a little like: “Facilities Manager” > “Education”
> “Manchester”, you can specify these search terms in the fields provided. Remember to always tailor your reason as to
why you want to connect. Download one of
my free fact sheets here.
Summary
Still want to
consider deleting your account? Think again! There’s so much to LinkedIn and I hope this
blog has been useful, given you a great insight and opportunity to consider some
of the less obvious features of LinkedIn, which when understood can take your
efforts to a whole different level, including the search capability, which is a
free resource within LinkedIn.
Should you need any further assistance please don’t
hesitate to get in touch, whether that’s
for a bespoke LinkedIn workshop or ongoing, outsourced social media marketing
support, to help ensure that your brand stays on top in 2019.
LinkedIn Pages are often overlooked by employees so let’s explore how your employees can be more engaged and help support your marketing team. LinkedIn Pages are a platform where employees have an opportunity to share the latest news and achievements of your company and to show how much they are engaged. Pages is also a place to highlight what day to day life is like at your company, whether you’re recruiting or offering potential clients a sense of what it’s like to do business. This will not only show what dedicated employees your company has but it will also support your culture at the same time. Use your Page to establish yourselves as leaders in your industry and build brand awareness.
There’s
also LinkedIn
Elevate, which is a paid-for product that helps companies find content for
their employees to then share on the platform. Whatever your company’s aims, it’s important
that everyone in your company helps to support the awareness of your brand on
Pages by helping to share the news.
However,
if you do not have a company Page, LinkedIn’s ‘how to’ instructions are here.
Here’s how you can support your company’s LinkedIn Page efforts from just 10 minutes a week:
Actively engage and reply to Page
updates, by:
Following your company’s Page
Liking an update
Commenting on an update if you feel
appropriate (include your own point of view on an interesting update or
statistic)
Sharing and commenting on an update to
your connections (again, including your own point of view on an interesting update
or statistic)
Above all, ask yourself:
What will my connection take away from the content I am sharing? What will help them to click to read more?
Each month your marketing team will be looking at your LinkedIn Pages’ key metrics, and they’ll be looking for analytics such as:
Page followers
Post clicks
Engagement
Comments
Remember,
from just 10 minutes a week your employees can support your Page and that’s
great news for all involved!
I
have a complimentary factsheet with lots of tips and ideas to support your
LinkedIn marketing plan. If you’d like a
copy, please contact me.
Should you need any further assistance please don’t hesitate to
get in touch, whether that’s for a bespoke LinkedIn workshop or ongoing,
outsourced social media marketing support, to help ensure that your brand stays
on top in 2019.
Having a solid presence in Google is key to a business’ success, not least because it is the most used search engine in the world. In fact, as of December 2018, NetMarketShare reported that 73.62% of all searches were powered by Google.[1]
Considering this, how can businesses compete better in Google?
One way is to ensure that you have a detailed Google My Business listing set up which is a tool for businesses to create a presence for themselves in Google Maps. When you search for a local service in Google, paid adverts are displayed at the top, 3 Maps results (Google My Business listings), known as the ‘Snack Pack,’ follow, and Google’s organic search results appear last.
Important Information to Include in a Google My Business Listing
Business name
Business type
Address/areas served
Opening Hours
Phone Number
Business Description
Google Reviews
Google Posts
What are Google Posts
Google posts can be used to promote your services and offers in Google. They appear in your listing and last for 7 days, so it is important that you are making at least 1 post a week to make potential customers engage with your business. In the example below, we have posted an explainer video and a link for people to book a web-demonstration of our customer reviews platform, but you can post about anything you like!
Local SEO Advantages with Google My Business
In November 2018, Moz published an article on the 2018 local search ranking factors survey which made clear that Google My Business signals account for 25.12% of your ranking in the Snack Pack which is a 32.14% increase from 2017. Google reviews account for 15.44% and Google Posts account for 2.82% of your local Snack Pack ranking.[2] Not only this, Google My Business signals, Google reviews, and Google Posts account for around 19% of your organic Google rankings so it is vital to a strong local SEO campaign.
Ensure that you fill in your business information in full, collect positive Google reviews, make regular posts about your work and offers because Google will reward you by returning your listing in the Snack Pack and in organic search more often than businesses with poorly filled out listings. This increases the chances of people using your business when they are searching for a service or product that you offer locally.
BizWizUK partner with TRUSTist and not only do we use their services, we recommend them to our clients too! We’re delighted that they have written a guest blog for January. TRUSTist is the market leader in generating sales for “local” businesses, by optimising Google+ Local pages and generating a constant flow of high quality Ratings and Reviews on Google, resulting in greatly improved positions on Google Local Search results.
To find out how TRUSTist can help you with all of this and more, please feel free to book a free web-demonstration with me by following this link.
As we approach the end of the year and prepare for Christmas, we are also looking forward to the start of a brand new year. In this fast paced environment of social media marketing we can already predict many of the changes and trends that are likely to take place in 2019. With this in mind, it is important that you start to look at your 2019 social media strategy to ensure that you are ahead of the game. Some elements to consider are:
Keeping up with social media
Big changes coming to Facebook’s messaging platform
As of the 1st January 2019, Facebook Pages will need to be successfully approved for subscription messaging permissions if not, they won’t be able to send the free messaging type called ‘non-promotional subscription messaging’.
As above, the battle to be seen amongst the vast array of competitor content means that you have to make your own content stand out. Careful consideration should be given to the sort of content you’re posting and its relevance. Your content should be a rich mixture of video, live streaming and info graphics. Text heavy updates will simply not be enough when it comes to your social media strategy!
Taking advantage of new platform features such as Facebook ‘Watch Party’
It’s official! Facebook Watch Party has been officially launched! It’s a new feature for groups that allows admins to hold a live screening of pre-recorded videos that are publicly available on Facebook. Group members can watch and comment on the videos at the same time to create a shared viewing experience.
Changing demographics
When considering your marketing plan you should take into account who your target audience is. Think about the varying understanding of technology, contact preferences and tome of voice that might best appeal to each demographic. For example, graduates, teenage consumers and the ageing population means people of an older age that might not have been targeted previously should now be included in any marketing strategy.
Deciding which platform serves what purpose and how you can take full advantage
So, we now know that Facebook is looking more towards video as I have mentioned above, and LinkedIn has launched changes to Company pages so where does Twitter fit in? Twitter has announced a relatively small, but significant update, which now means that advertisers using the platform’s in-stream video ads will be able to reach a global audience with their ad content, as opposed to being region-restricted. Twitter has also announced a new update to its ‘Explore’ section which splits the latest news into sections, helping to improve relevant content discovery. Twitter is more associated to real-time content, so it might prove more beneficial to users who are looking to keep up with the latest news and events.
I hope my latest blog has given you some ideas for your 2019 social media strategy? Make sure you’re ahead of the game by using the above points to help inform your strategy or you can sign up to our monthly newsletter here.
Should you need any further assistance don’t hesitate to get in touch and my team and I can help draft a bespoke plan that will ensure your brand is on top in 2019.
It’s that time of the year again when we should have our Christmas marketing campaigns in place. This time of the year especially can be a great opportunity to surprise and engage your audience, whilst at the same time generating more reach and visibility for your brand.
Have you got your seasonal marketing plan in place? Here are my ideas:
End of Year Round-ups
End of the year round-ups are a great way to inform your audience of what’s been happening. Gather figures, such as insights that are relevant. For example, if you are in the financial services sector you might want to include how many people you’ve helped to get a mortgage, or how many first-time buyers you’ve helped to get on the property ladder in 2018. You could also consider interviewing contacts in your industry who can offer predictions into the new year ahead.
We have many clients who really like this idea and it helps but them above their competitors in terms of creativity! Think of how you can be informative or helpful with the content.
Leverage Video and Other Content
It’s not a secret that video marketing is a major trend to exploit. With 50% of consumers looking for a video of a product before visiting the online store* video is an extremely effective method of drawing the attention of your audience.
The content for your campaigns can include existing video or display ads, relevant posts that you’ve written for your blog, or campaigns that you are running on Twitter, Facebook or other channels. By putting these in front of a relevant audiences can significantly increase the value that your previous marketing investments deliver!
Get Behind a Local Charity
Another great way to create a seasonal social media campaign and give back to your community is to get behind a local charity that matters to your brand, your people and audience. Ask a member of staff, or your boss, to dress up as Santa and visit a local charity to donate Christmas presents to children or instead of sending Christmas cards donate the money to charity! There are some fantastic ideas here.
Create Social Media Only Offers
Make your audience more special at Christmas time and offer a social media only exclusive offer. This might be in the form of a discount, free delivery, free advice, a 3 for the price of 2 type offer, there’s lots of opportunities you could consider.
I don’t believe in making things complicated and your marketing campaigns don’t have to be either! Here’s some extra ideas to keep in mind over this Christmas and New Year period:
Design a special Christmas image which also resonates with your brand, change your social media profiles and header images to reflect your marketing campaign
Pin posts to the top of your profile on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Company pages
Create campaign specific hashtags that you can track. This will help you measure the performance of any marketing campaigns
Don’t forget to include easy access in which your audience can share your campaign or special offer via your website
Track your campaign results so you can improve future campaigns
Use paid ads to increase your reach
I hope that you have enjoyed reading my social media marketing ideas for the Christmas season ahead, let the festivities begin!
If you’d like to chat about any of your future social media requirements, bespoke to your company, please contact me on 07752 539719 or 0161 826 7181 or email info@bizwizuk.co.uk.
and more..
Your Startup on Social Media
Customise your Public Profile URL – stand out!
